At our school budget meeting last night Superintendent Chris Record and his team presented a near-final budget for consideration. As you know, in the coming fiscal year Cape Elizabeth will receive nearly $800,000 less in state subsidy than we did in the current fiscal year. Despite that, our near-final budget represents:
No educational program cuts
No teacher or staff cuts to any currently filled position
A fully-funded maintenance and repair budget.
Despite the state funding cut and rising insurance premiums, Cape Elizabeth tax payers will see one of the lowest tax increases in years. Also, we believe we have among the lowest expenditure increases, if not the lowest, in all of Cumberland County. We are in this position thanks to the thoughtful stewardship of Dr Record and his team. Since he joined our district four years ago, his team has carefully built up the school's rainy day fund, so we can weather years like this one.
I am proud of this budget and of our district leadership team who have spent hundreds of hours getting us to this place, without sacrificing the excellent educational standards our community expects.
Thanks for your support of our schools,
Phil Saucier
School Board Chair